May Farm Update
It’s Memorial Day! I would like to thank the members of our military, past and present, for all they have done to help make the freedoms we have possible. I also hope everyone is having a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!
May started out a fairly dry month, but fortunately, we have had several rains over the last week and everything is green and growing quickly. I was out looking at our hay fields this morning. I think by the end of the week they will be ready to cut if we get a few dry days.
We finished rock picking and planting the new fields we rented this year. We still have some fences we are building on the new pasture ground, but we are almost done with those as well.
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The cattle that we are finishing are grazing in the Rye, Hairy Vetch, and Crimson Clover that we planted as a cover crop last fall. They seem to be putting on a lot of weight and should be in great shape when we bring them into the butcher mid June. W currently have one quarter of beef not yet reserved, but I have had 3 emails inquiring about beef this weekend so I don’t expect it to last long.
Calving season has been great so far. We have 20 calves now and are expecting 1 more today or tomorrow. Then, we will be done for the year. It has been exciting to see the calves from our Aubrac bull. They all seem very healthy and have great body structures which is what we were hoping to get from the Aubrac. Unfortunately, we are planning on getting rid of the Aubrac bull after this breeding season. He is a great bull, easy to handle, and not aggressive toward people. The problem we are having is that from May till the end of July, when we start breeding again, the bulls are separated from the cows. The Aubrac doesn’t like to be alone and has gone through several fences trying to get back in with the cows. We are keeping him in the corral now and that seems to hold him. It is a shame to get rid of him because in every other way he is a great bull and throws wonderful calves. We are contemplating replacing him in the future with another Aubrac bull to see if another one would be easier to keep in the fences.
Lastly, the pigs are doing very well out on pasture and have grown to about 50 pounds each now. They are all sold now and sold out in less than a month. There seems to be a lot of demand for pastured pork in our area.
I hope everyone is enjoying the weather and getting ready for an awesome summer!
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